This month I was really lucky to feature nine incredible ladies of horror and their work. I had intended to feature 10 ladies to echo the decade mark for Women in Horror Month’s existence, but unfortunately my last guest had some scheduling conflicts, so rather than scrambling and begging someone to do a last minute interview, I decided to write something up myself!

If you missed the nine interviews, please check them out here because holy smokes, these ladies are up to some incredible, wicked works that you don’t want to miss. A huge thank you to everyone who took time out of their schedules to join me and share more about their work, processes, identity, and more.

In addition to the interviews, I wrapped up some final decisions for the Not All Monsters anthology this month (to be published in 2020 with StrangeHouse Books). The listing is now closed, but if you’re curious about the info/theme, I’ll link it here. The anthology was an open call for women who write horror, and I am pleased to say I received nearly 300 submissions from all across the globe! That’s a lot of badass ladies writing amazing, vicious, gorgeous, darkly beautiful stories out there.

*Side note — if you submitted to the open call awhile ago and have heard nothing back, keep an eye out. We have decided to send out the acceptances in batches in an effort to keep the book fresh in peoples’ minds since the publication won’t be until 2020. Read more about that on the publisher’s post here.

This anthology was without a doubt the biggest thing I have been an editor for to-date, and I loved it! I hope I have the opportunity to edit more things like it in the future. Here are some things I learned so far, but it’s not over yet:

*Sending out rejections is AWFUL and I hate it…but it’s a necessary part of the job. I also think most people understand that it isn’t personal, it’s all professional and based on what works best for the theme/anthology/goes with the other stories without being too similar, etc…

*Reading that many stories IS overwhelming, and I think I will adapt a better method the next time I do this

*However, seeing the creativity and different way women approached this theme was amazing

*There were a lot of similar themes based around abuse and other trauma in the stories that was heartbreaking because I just knew that so many of those writers had probably experienced something in their own life that may have led to bleeding out some cathartic remedy onto the page. So if you submitted, no matter what happens with your story, I hope you were able to purge some of the bad out and breathe a little easier. You are brave, and amazing, and I love you.

*Women are incredible. But you and I already knew that 🙂 And if anyone ever complains that there aren’t enough women writing horror out there, send them to me. I know about 300 women who are.

February has been a heavy social media month for me, and I think I’m due for a break to work on some of my own projects. Until then, happy writing. Let’s celebrate women in horror all year long!